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PETIT-DÉJEUNER D'INFORMATION LINKS CONSEIL : L'INFLUENCE DE LA VOIX DANS LES RELATIONS COMMERCIALES

- 16 hours and 2 minutes ago

Want to build to last hundreds of years with the dirt already on your land? One way might be by cob. Here's an upcoming seminar that may make a good start:

Cob Garden Wall Workshop
October 24-26, 2008
Leander, TX

$250 - early tuition (paid in full by Sept 30)
$300 - full tuition (paid after Sept 30)
$100 - non-refundable deposit reserves you a space (remainder due by Oct 24)

This workshop will offer hands on training in the construction of an outdoor cob garden wall. The workshop will be held in the backyard of a suburban home in Leander, Texas.

This workshop project will break up a large, open backyard into smaller, inviting spaces; creating a garden space and retreat for the homeowner to enjoy. The cob wall will incorporate two large arches, a planting trellis, and other decorative elements. We feel like this is a great opportunity to teach participants basic cob building elements that they can employ in beautifying their own outdoor spaces.

The workshop will cover foundation construction, cob mixing, wall building, window/trellis incorporation, and roofing. Each day will be a combination of hands on building and discussions. Individuals of all physical abilities and building experience are welcome. Participants should leave this workshop with the confidence and experience needed to take on their own outdoor cob project and the support of a network of likeminded folks.

Each participant will be provided with space to camp and served a vegetarian lunch each day of the workshop.

Instructor:
Sara Schmidt-left her environmental engineering career in 2005 to complete an apprenticeship with Cob Cottage Company; additional training with House Alive and Cobworks; employed as a natural builder since 2006.

Workshop Hostess:
Kathy Rinard-recently completed a 7 day cob cabin building workshop and went right home and began a cob project of her own. Kathy is looking to create a more inviting and functional backyard.

Mail workshop tuition/deposit to:
Sara Schmidt
P.O. Box 835
Fraser, CO 80442

If you have any questions, feel free to contact me at:
sara_schmidt96@yahoo.com
512-422-3517

And, if you're already a cob expert, please submit a couple dozen Instructables about it for the benefit of the rest of us!

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S'ouvrir à sa sensualité

Public sector pensions bill double the official figure

Blue 8GB Zune Confirmed Along with a Ton of New Features [Zune]

Gizmodo

- 16 hours and 7 minutes ago

A cool new blue Zune was spotted at Fry's today, complete with some new features. The first, “Device to Cloud,” allows users to access wireless hotspots to update music collections, browse Zune Marketplace, refresh Channels (another feature), exchange favorites, and buy tagged FM songs. "Channels" are custom stations that deliver "personalized playlists" to the Zune, and the cleverly named "Games" feature is, well, about games. Rumor is a few might even come preloaded on this blue Zune. Lastly, the "Buy From FM" feature lets you listen to FM radio stations and tag the songs purchase when you sync with a PC. Full specs and other details down below.

Key Features & Benefits

Buy from FM
o Listen to your favorite FM radio stations and click to tag the songs you like for later purchase when you sync your device with your PC1.
Zune Pass
o Download millions of tracks, whole albums or playlists with ZuneÂ® Pass subscription service. Explore new music or rediscover old favoritesâ€”then sync them all
to your Zune Extend your subscription online or by purchasing a Zune Pass card.4 Wireless Sync
o Connect to your home wireless network and remotely sync your ZuneÂ® device with your PC collection from your dock, AC adapter, or speaker dock accessory. 2
Device to Cloud
o Access thousands of wireless hotspots around the country to automatically update your collection, browse Zune Marketplace, refresh Channels, exchange favorites with friends, or buy songs you've tagged from your FM radio.
Wireless Sharing
o Send your favorite songs, albums, playlists, pictures and even audio podcasts freely between any ZuneÂ® devices. 3
Channels
o ZuneÂ® Channels are custom programming stations that deliver personalized playlists to your ZuneÂ® from a variety of sources you select, such as music experts, celebrities, or top radio stations.
Games
o Games rock on your ZuneÂ®. ZuneÂ® Players now come with a selection of fun free games to choose from. Play the popular poker game Texas Hold'em or challenge yourself to a game of Hexic, and make sure you play your favorite song from your collection to create your own personal game soundtrack.
Video/TV Shows
o Choose from a growing selection of TV shows now available on the ZuneÂ® Marketplace video store. Recorded TV shows or movies from Windows Media Center in Windows Vista can be imported and synced to your Zune.5

Requirements

Specifications section
o Capacity:8GB
o Digital Storage Media: Hard disk drive - built-in
o Sound Output Mode:Stereo
o Supported Digital Photo Standards:JPEG,Audio & Video Playback
o Supported Digital Audio Standards: WMA, AAC, MP3
o Playback Modes: Random play / shuffle
o Supported Digital Video Standards:MPEG-4, WMV, H.264
o Display Built-in Display:LCD-color
o Diagonal Size: X"
o Resolution: 320 x 240
o Battery:rechargeable-Lithium ion
o Headphones:binaural-Earbuds
o Included Accessories: 3 earpiece covers, sync cable
o Connections Type:1 x docking station | 1 x USB | 1 x headphones

[Fry's via Zunerama]

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Proven Advice to Free Business Opportunity -- By an Expert

Is Search Really 90% Solved?

TechCrunch

- 17 hours and 13 minutes ago

Jessica Guynn has an excellent interview with Google’s Marissa Mayer today about Google’s first ten years (today is arguably Google’s tenth birthday). Good stuff in there - Marissa talks about Google’s accomplishments in search and advertising, and looks forward to a future where cloud computing becomes pervasive. Marissa also says she hopes to still be at the company in another ten years.

But one thing caught my eye. Marissa says search is “90 to 95%” solved:

Search is an unsolved problem. We have a good 90 to 95% of the solution, but there is a lot to go in the remaining 10%. How do we monetize new forms of content as they come online such as video, maps and books. How do we help content providers transition their businesses online and build healthy businesses.

Here’s the thing. I don’t think search is even close to being solved yet. In a May 25 post I talked about how early I think we are in search, and why a competitive search market is so important to make sure innovation keeps happening:

Innovation In Search Has Just Begun

I simply cannot believe that just a little over a decade into the commercial Internet, Tim O’Reilly is willing to say that the search war is over. Did he not read his good friend John Battelle’s book, The Search? He’s not the only expert out there who thinks the war is over - Danny Sullivan argued as much on the Gillmor Gang last week. But I simply cannot believe that this is all we can expect in terms of search innovation.

There are so many areas on search that remain to be conquered. Semantic search. Real language/AI search. The deep web. Media search. Today search basically returns web documents. What I want is for search to complete tasks for me. We’re no where near that today.

We are just getting started in search. To think that search has reached its pinnacle today is like saying aircraft were perfected before World War I. And if just one company were to carry on in aircraft innovation at that point, I doubt we’d have jetliners whisking us around the world today.

Innovation does not occur at a rapid pace without competition. If Google or any company were to control search exclusively, we could expect to see little happen in search technology or business models over even the medium and long term.

Sure, the odd startup or two would still come along and try to shake things up. But search is infrastructure intensive - the cost and difficulty of indexing the web and building a business in an established market requires resources that most new startups can’t realistically access. And if the market consolidates further, competing will become that much harder. There’s a reason monopolies get broken up by governments - market forces can’t generally undo them.

If search was 90% solved, Google could look at a picture of me standing by the Eiffel Tower and know, without textual metadata, what’s there. It could return results for a Barack Obama query that include all the videos he’s in, again without relying on tags or other textual metadata. Natural language. Deep web searches. Semantic search. All of these problems are unsolved.

This is not the long term solution to image search.

But anyway, Happy Birthday Google. You’ve done a lot in ten years. Just don’t give up on search yet.

CrunchBase Information Marissa Mayer Google Information provided by CrunchBase

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